Renee Ermer is talking about a fundamental problem of lack of communication between colleagues and superiors due to remote work. The described problem is caused by a large number of employees hired for remote positions. It gives rise to a critical issue of communication and understanding between colleagues. They are deprived of development, motivation, and the opportunity to understand each other’s intentions deeply. This problem leads to an even bigger one, which companies of all sizes and incomes worry about but face an influx of remote work. Communication shortcomings lead to workers’ desire to quit, leading to staff turnover and the inability to keep a position for a specific person for a long time.
Renee Ermer has pretty accurately identified the person she assumes should be seriously involved in solving the problem. However, an HR business partner will not be enough to decide to change the company’s communication model. The HR business partner is not a profoundly internal worker and is not integrated into the company’s processes as much as required to solve the problem. Joe Smith may be able to help her in the future, and he may also be able to provide managers with a detailed presentation of the decisions made. It may attract some investment from stakeholders for communications reforms. Renee Ermer appears to have chosen to research new policies on her own, but teaming up with Joe Smith would have been more beneficial. Most likely, joint research could quickly bring encouraging results that could be presented in detail to managers. Based on this, one can see that Renee did not accurately determine her attitude toward the decision-maker. She planned to take full responsibility for the study and put the results into a presentation.